1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interactive software program for providing access to data on or off the Internet, and more particularly, to a software program which allows users to access, generate, present and manipulate an active presentation of sites, sources and services related to the Internet and Internet related technologies and to control privately networked devices. This access, manipulation and displaying is facilitated by use of a variety of graphical interfaces, one of which is a time and topic oriented program guide which displays and organizes Internet and non-Internet related broadcasts, information, data and content.
2. Background
The use of the Internet and the World Wide Web (the “Web”) is continuing to expand at an exponential rate. Indeed, content is continuously added to and otherwise made available to users, new users are logging on every day to search and view this information, and new systems are being developed and linked to the Internet to take advantage of this information and content. As a result, the already vast and diverse types of information residing on the Web grow larger every day.
Today, accessing this vast storehouse of information is accomplished through the use of Web browsers which provide user-friendly graphical user interfaces by which everyday users may access and manipulate information on the Web. A browser functions on a point-to-point basis by contacting a web site and obtaining information from the site in the form of web page. This information is retrieved through the use of one or more search engines which attempt to identify, obtain and organize what is likely to be the most relevant information requested by the user on a specific topic, based on the user's specific inquiry and search parameters.
Retrieved web pages often contain hypertext or hypermedia links by which users can access related textual and audio, video, graphic animation and other active content, respectively. The presentation of graphical and audio active content on the Web is very recent development. Other recent developments include the proliferation of “push” and “netcasting” technology. Push technology allows users who subscribe to a push service to receive periodic updates of predetermined, user-designated information of interest to the user. The service software makes automatic, periodic queries to sites containing information relevant to the user's requests, to see if there exists new, pertinent information on the subscribed to topics. If so, the service “pulls” the new information from the remote site and “pushes” it onto the user's computer or other display.
“Netcasting” or “webcasting,” on the other hand, is an alternative to traditional Web browsing. Unlike browsing, where users go out on the Web and search for information, netcasting information may be broadcast over the Internet by a single host such that the data can be received by multiple recipients over one or more “multicast channels.” A user wishing to receive a netcast simply tunes into the proper digital channel. Thus, a user's computer acts like a television or radio receiver. This technology not only has the potential to turn the Internet into a mass-distribution channel for digital information on the same scale as broadcast television, but also to facilitate the interaction between the Internet and various types of private network systems and devices.
One major disadvantage of the current browser system is high network traffic over the Internet resulting from the combination of numerous and repeated site-to-site user information requests and the downloading of requested information. Other disadvantages are that all too often, the information retrieved is not responsive to the user's request and not organized in a user-friendly format. Yet another disadvantage arises from the inability of current browsers to permit users to access, present and manipulate traditional web-based information and the more recent push and netcast information, either separately or in combination. In other words, the current browser system for accessing the Internet is ill-equipped to identify, access, manipulate and display traditional Web-based information and the distribution of Internet and non-Internet programming over digital Internet channels. Further, the current browser system is equally ill-equipped to control privately networked devices. Thus, various drawbacks exist with the current approaches and other known techniques and methods.